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Louise (lu) Croese's avatar

The wisdom of pessimism is that it makes optimism, real. One without the other, is meaningless.

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Christian Steinberger's avatar

Something very important is missing here: Despite or because of the "will" according to Schopenhauer the highest form of existence a human can reach is "Mitleid". Which means more than today's compassion or the ugly technocratic term "empathy". Mit=with. Leid=suffering.

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Zoekenaar's avatar

Very interesting that Schopenhauer suggests will is the basis of both life and non-life. I thought surely there would be a distinction between the physicality of the material and the 'spiritual' state of life. Yes the magnet points north, but there is a complete lack of will in that movement, it is entropic in nature. Only life can oppose entropy, we may feel 'pulled' to the north pole - so to say - but we have the will to turn away. That is what differentiates life from non-life, or maybe I have not though deeply enough about this.

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Tad Kosewicz's avatar

Of course. Of course. My latest fave from AS:

"The Catholic clergy, for example, are fully convinced of the truth of all the tenets of their Church, and so are the Protestant clergy of theirs, and both defend the principles of their creeds with like zeal. And yet the conviction is governed merely by the country native to each; to the South German ecclesiastic the truth of the Catholic dogma is quite obvious, to the North German, the Protestant. If then, these convictions are based on objective reasons, the reasons must be climatic, and thrive, like plants, some only here, some only there."

in "Religion: A Dialog" (1851)

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